U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings hit former Patterson-UTI Energy CFO Jody Nelson with a twenty-five year prison term for embezzling over $77 million from the company over nearly ten years. Judge Cummings has a reputation for being a tough sentencer, and a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas (here) states that the Judge noted "corporate malfeasance was a major problem in our society and that such conduct cannot be tolerated" in handing down the sentence. Judge Cummings did drop the sentence down five years from the thirty-year term permitted under the Sentencing Guidelines because of Nelson's cooperation once the crime came to light. The USAO release details how Nelson used corporate funds to invest in a number of ventures and support an expensive lifestyle that included buying his own jet, and an earlier post (here) discusses the auction of Nelson's property obtained through the fraud. The U.S. Attorney also thanked the SEC for its assistance in the case. The Commission filed the first action to freeze Nelson's assets, and assisted in determining the scope of the false entries in the company's books, an example of the cooperation that occurs frequently in sorting out complex financial frauds. (ph)

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I am the wife of the receiver Robert Wilson in Lubbock. I know many of the facts of this case and am interested in find weblogs about the psychological dimensions associated with these types of criminals.

Posted by: Marcia Wilson | Jan 2, 2007 7:30:40 PM

I am the wife of the receiver Robert Wilson in Lubbock. I know many of the facts of this case and am interested in find weblogs about the psychological dimensions associated with these types of criminals.